Rx450h Test Drive!

[Greedy80]

Hi guys,

Just thought you might like to hear about this I like many others on here had an invite frommylocal Lexus dealer to test drive the RX450H. I wanted to take my little family shopping anyway and so tied the event in with a trip to poole and I just thought I'd chare my opinions and thoughtswith my fellow IS200 owners. Well first of as always the show roomisathing ofbeauty with a IS250C, LS460 and RX 450H all on display and in pristine condition. In fact I think the reason us IS owners are so piccy about keeping our cars so clean is because of the effect these show rooms leave on us. The cars looked sensational, it made me wonder whatthe IS200 looked like in its show room years. Anyway I digress, I met the friendly sales man and he proceeded to show us the show model and predictably it was very very comfortable with great visibility and brilliant all round visibility.

Next came the good bit the actual test drive, the thing that is so errie to me is the silent start and initial silent running. You simply feel like your floating along, at first my partner loved the novelty of no sound but then felt a little car sick as a result. However I imagine knowing you're running on electric and saving all that fuel must be a good feeling especially with a 3.5 litre v6 engine. Any way I could go on and on but basically I liked it, put simply it's like driving around in your living room it's effortless and so refined. Personally though I don't think I'd buy one unless I had enough money to get it as a second alternative car. Driving around in something automatic and essentially that does all it can to distance you from the experience of driving is a bit uninspiring. Also a big negative for me was the dashboard, not the control layout or anything but the acre of agricultural looking plastic that sits between you and the wind screen. In a car like this it's just at odds with the rest of the high quality leather interior. I did however like very much the HUD display showing your speed and GPS directions, I know several other cars have this now but it is a great tool. Overall I'd say I was impressed infact veryimpressed but would I buy it, sadly no. I'm certain it will tops it's class but it just isn't the kind of car I would want, despte it's luxurious cabin and feel.

They aare also running a test day onthe is250c so I may have to rebook for that one, I have to say the cream leather cabin looked great in both the 250 and 460. A bugger to clean though I expect........ :winky: